Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/17/new-brexit-deal-announced-it.html
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No, it is not Theresa May’s one, is much worse (for the UK)
Is the first offer the UE made to the UK which was rejected by Theresa May (no sitting PM will ever agree to this) and started the whole backstop debacle
Rule of thumb, if Barnier and Junker are happy is no good news for the UK
In fact this is all academical, I don’t think this agreement will ever sanctioned in parliament
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I wonder what terrible concession de Pfeffel will offer to the swivel-eyed bigots of the DUP to get them on-board with his latest plan for national catastrophe. The only one I’d see working for them would have to involve dead Irish Catholics.
The Scottish and other court challenges aside, is the best-case scenario now: losing vote on the latest deal -> no-confidence vote on gov’t -> Corbyn as PM finally listening to sense about a second referendum? Or is that too much to hope for?
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Well, at least Labour are fully pushing a second referendum now.
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Think that the only way the opposition parties will combine to carry a no-confidence vote is if Corbyn isn’t the interim Prime Minister. Most of the no-longer-Conservatives have said they’ll never be part of a process that will put him in power, and the opposition will need those votes.
Potential outcome (imo) would be lose vote on Sat > refuse to extend > no-confidence > someone other than Corbyn as PM > ask for/receive extension > call election > Tories get back in with majority and we get a hard-Brexit, England attempts to recreate the Empire*
*Mercia in the 9th Century
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That deal makes absolutely no sense. There will be “no border” between Northern Ireland and the EU, and Northern Ireland is still part of the UK? But with a customs border between Northern Ireland and England/Wales? Of course the Unionists will reject this. And of course the hard core brexiteers will reject this.
Their only “solution” is a no-deal brexit. This is likely to result in Scotland and Northern Ireland becoming independent (and/or a lot of violence in Ireland/Northern Ireland), and the UK being left as only England and Wales.
Or they could be smarter and scrap the whole brexit thing. It’s been over 3 years since the brexit vote. I believe that the brexit proponents don’t dare put any real proposal to a voter referendum as it would be voted down.
All I think of is the origin story of the phrase “cut off your nose to spite your face”.
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I love the part where the reporter asks Chapman whether Corbyn (now- necessary reminder: his party leader) has been told of this shift. I can imagine the scene at party HQ: “The old boy’s still dreaming of running the People’s Republic of Britain from his orange-and-avocado shag-carpeted study at Number 10. Do we really want to bother him with this?”
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The Irish Sea will now be called a moat and be stocked with alligators and snakes. All of whom will promptly die because it is an unfit environment and no one involved has any common sense.
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I just can’t anymore…
My home and my adopted countries are both teetering on a precipice.
Reading the news makes my physically ill, and to think that this last-minute effort to fuck over 40+ million people in the UK may succeed? While to toffs continue to enjoy their estates in France and Ireland and cheat on their taxes.
And here we have discussions about how none of the 13 D candidates are quite what they were looking for in a centrist Joe Lieberman kind of candidate so they’ll just sit this election out
Time to unplug the internet for a year
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Been there, done that …
And the same spiel begins anew: Deal negotiated -> patting each other on the back in Brussels/Downing Street -> parliament fucks it up -> new extension
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I watched Arlene on RTÉ the other day when the deal was mooted and she was quite different to how she normally is. She was picking fewer fights for a start (the interviews are usually quite soft as they genuinely want her to get her view across as nobody here is going to do that for her) but more importantly her language had changed utterly. The first thing she said was that the deal had to work for the NI economy - obviously not leaving was the best for that, and something like this next best - she never said that before. In the context of the DUP which has no real economic plan or expertise this translates as “sweeties. I want sweeties” She wants cash that she can disburse to her clients. The second thing she said was about consent and cross community consent. Which means the NI assembly which she closed down rather than enact scheduled legislation on the Irish language. Turns out that wasn’t a real red line either and what she really needs is a forced birth law which she can’t have if the assembly is shut down.
So no published report on the cash for ash scandal and maybe none on Kincora/sex abuse scandals, a pile of cash of sufficient size and everything she has said for the last 3 years is actually optional.
They will most likely oust her shortly.
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A sign of a great negotiation is that everybody leaves the table exhausted and miserable.
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Note: I am an American who has been watching increasingly horrified. I’m all for sovereignty and rights from the civilian all the way up to the national level, but it’s become clear that the UK has messed up.
To be honest, I never understood why on earth England thought they had so much leverage on the other EU countries. I mean, even if they would have chained and padlocked the doors, surrounded the meeting hall with soldiers, and plunked a suitcase nuke on the table with a promise that they would either get a reasonable deal or they were destroying the EU, starting here and now; they still wouldn’t have had that much leverage. (And I do mean England. I think Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the rest knew how this would go down.)
But I always kind of just wanted the UK to agree to a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, then just refuse to implement it; citing the Good Friday agreement and just refuse to do any kind of enforcement of the border. Have offices well away from the border that handle paperwork that people want to do, but just let people ignore the border and carry stuff across without challenge. Want to drive a truck full of EU certified goods into the UK with a different certification, for sale? Who cares. Want to drive a truck full of these UK certified goods into the EU and distribute them throughout Europe? That’s their problem, not ours. 
Heck, undercut the EU’s tariffs and intentionally let things flow through NI. Their problem, not ours.
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I don’t understand why the sane people in the UK government don’t just scrap Brexit entirely and tell the right-wing idiots to self-fornicate. What, just because the people vote for something, you have to do it? The White House would beg to differ.
After hearing an interview with David Cameron, I understand the position that the UK deserved special status because their relationship with the EU was one-sided, with the UK providing more to the EU than they were getting back. But that’s stupid pride, and look where pride gets you.
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Exceptionalism.
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The only allowable transport across the Irish Sea will be an inverted roller-coaster that makes sure your cellphone and all loose change falls out of your pocket. A.K.A. “tariff.”
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Frankly, the internet is one of the root causes of the shit we’ve been getting deeper and deeper into for most of this century. I’m not saying it has not brought huge benefits, but its unlimited communication capability for any old arsehole with an axe to grind and the ability to reach other twats, is a root cause of many of today’s political crises.
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That was the Brexiteers’ plan: to blame the EU for the hard border by leaving the border open and forcing the Republic of Ireland to “choose” to erect border controls.
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It all works out nicely if no one does it.
